Toilet construction

"When I tried to convince the villagers about toilets, sometimes they would scoff and scorn at me for being ‘jobless’. Often men would misbehave and taunt as well."

“We do not just build toilets. We teach the women to build and maintain their own toilets. So that, after they master these construction skills, they can earn a living from it by building toilets for others." #WorldToiletDay #Sanitation #ImpactThatMatters

She spoke to him openly about the shame her mother felt every day from having to defecate in the open and convinced him to build a toilet.

Instead of encouraging women to leave their marital homes due to the absence of toilets, she is empowering them to fight for their rights and enable the construction of one.

From the design point of view, the footrest of the regular toilet has seen an ergonomic development. It is elevated at an angle which makes it easier for the user to squat on. Besides, the toilet also has a universal demarcation to help the visually impaired access it.

The children have started not only internalising it, but are also trying to translate this knowledge and practice to their families and community at large.

Across rural Koraput, women have led the movement against open defecation although it’s never easy to wipe out centuries of set behavioural practices.

Kotabharri village in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh is home to 104-year-old Kunwarbai Yadav who is known by many as the lady who sold her goats to construct a toilet near her house.

The government offers subsidies of Rs. 12,000 each to rural households for constructing toilets. But for one NGO that helps villagers use this scheme, the process of filing applications and tracking construction was proving to be difficult. Until an app called mDemand came along.

An Australian, Mark Balla, has been raising funds for the construction of toilets in Indian schools since 2013. After making an eye-opening visit to a school in Dharavi, Mumbai, he decided to set up a charity that aims to build 20,000 toilets in schools so that teenage girls never have to leave their education midway.